


Small Steps

by Saziikins



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-05
Updated: 2015-09-05
Packaged: 2018-04-19 06:00:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4735157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saziikins/pseuds/Saziikins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Davos isn’t sure how they’re going to make it. But although their relationship makes no sense to anyone else, they're beginning to find an even footing with one another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Steps

**Author's Note:**

> I'm writing for another fandom. Good gracious. To any of my Sherlock readers, this is just a brief excursion, I promise. But I adore these two, and I love Stannis. It was good fun to play with some new characters for a while.

Sometimes Davos isn’t sure how they’re going to make it. 

Stannis comes home late from work, because somehow there is always more to do and he cannot stomach leaving things half-done. It is gone eight o’clock, and everyone else has eaten. He stands in the doorway to what was once _his_ living room and is now _their_ living room. He surveys the scene, the games console controllers and cases spread across the carpet. There’s unfinished homework and books on his walnut table, and half-drunk glasses of coke and lemonade left on the side, without coasters. He flicks Davos a look, which says ‘I didn’t ask for this’ before he wordlessly retreats into the kitchen to see what has been left over for him to eat.

He doesn’t say anything about the mess. He doesn’t have to. 

A quick word from Davos, and his sons are hastily clearing up after themselves. And Davos knows better than to join Stannis while he’s eating. The truth is, he doesn’t think Stannis did ask for any of this. 

Stannis’ life was laid out before him from the day he was born. He would follow in his father’s and his brother’s footsteps and work in the Baratheon company. He would marry a well-to-do woman and have several children whose lives were mapped out for them too. 

He succeeded, mostly, though there was only one child born from that loveless marriage. Shireen’s mother is out of the picture and has been since Shireen was two. Davos doesn’t know much about what happened, only that Shireen doesn’t ask about her mother and seems content enough. 

But Davos, or a man like Davos, was never supposed to be a part of Stannis Baratheon’s life. He invaded it, he supposed. Snuck in, under the cloak of night, with a disregard for the orderliness of Stannis’ affairs. He made Stannis question his morals, his ethics, and upended his future plans. Sometimes he thinks Stannis resents him for it, but only when Davos finds himself wondering if this is really what they both want. 

Davos finds him at the kitchen table with a cold mug of half-drunk coffee and an unfinished plate of chicken and vegetables. He sits beside him at the table, not saying a word.

They have a tendency to do this. Sit in silence for hours, almost mirroring one another’s posture, though Stannis is straight-backed and tense and Davos hunched over, his elbows on the table, waiting for his lover to make the first move. 

A relationship counsellor would tell them they need to communicate more. But Davos understands Stannis in and out and backwards and forwards, and so often, they don’t need words. 

He watches as Stannis finally stops grinding his teeth. Watches as the tension in his jaw slackens and he lets out a long sigh. Only then does Davos reach for him, wrapping a hand around the back of his neck in the way he knows Stannis likes. 

“Bad day?” he asks, and he knows from Stannis’ nod that it was the very worst of days. Because more and more, Stannis is coming to despise working with Robert and what he knows to be his brother's unethical business practises. More and more, Robert is not a good boss, but a selfish, corrupt CEO. 

It is taking its tole on Stannis, who is trying to remain loyal to his family while he watches all he has ever known crumble around his feet. It’s why he hates the mess in the house so much, because he needs to find order in everything, and there is none now, not anywhere he looks. 

Davos knows him. He understands him. They don’t make sense to anyone else. Davos didn’t fit into Stannis’ life, and Stannis did not fit into his. Yet somehow, they’ve made it work. Though some days, Davos doesn’t know how they’re going to make it. 

He runs Stannis a bath, hands him a glass of red wine, and leaves him to think alone. He instructs Allard to help Shireen with her homework, though he suspects she is more than capable of doing it herself. Maric and Matthos agree to do the washing up without complaint. Davos ensures his and Stannis’ bedroom is in good order, before he shoos his youngest to bed. 

It is only when the children have all gone to their bedrooms to sleep or watch TV that Stannis joins Davos on the sofa, very much looking like he carries the universe on his shoulders. 

And it’s then, and only then, that he seeks Davos’ touch. He presses his forehead to Davos’ temple, and closes his eyes. Davos smiles as he always does when Stannis does this. He always thinks Stannis is trying to telepathically transmit all his thoughts and feelings to him because he doesn’t know how to say them aloud. 

For so many years, Stannis has been called robotic. He has no airs and graces, he shows little tact when he speaks. And over the years, he’s learned to speak less and spend more time alone. People, generally, do not like him. Davos does. Davos finds Stannis’ curtness amusing and refreshing. But it takes a while to get him to open up about anything, and Davos resents all those who did not have the patience for Stannis. All those who have left him feeling unlikeable and unlovable. All those people who made Stannis feel like an unexploded landmine - something definitely worth avoiding. Davos is angry at them all, because he knows Stannis feels better if he does manage to say what is on his mind. 

“Your sons hate me,” Stannis says, and of all the things to leave his mouth, Davos was not expecting that. He had no idea it was even on Stannis’ mind, and the fact he is expressing it at all means he has been thinking about it for some time.

Davos bites his lip. “Aye, but not always.” There is no point in lying to Stannis. He sees right through it anyway, and he doesn’t need to be mollycoddled. 

“They don’t like this arrangement. They don’t like this house. They don’t like me. The only things they do like are Shireen and the widescreen television.”

Davos tries to smile. “And the Playstation. And the Xbox.” And even those, Stannis had only bought to try to appear welcoming. 

He and Stannis had moved too fast perhaps but they had been swept up in their fledgling relationship. They were both in their 40s, in no position to go slowly. The boys split their time between this house and Davos’ ex-wife’s home, but Marya’s flat is not large enough for all of them. They had all moved into Stannis and Shireen’s home, without considering how it would work. It was a rare spontaneous act on Stannis’ part. Davos still isn’t sure if he is pleased to have done it.

“Do we need to start thinking about me and the boys finding somewhere else to live?” Davos finally asks. 

“I don’t want to.”

“But?”

Stannis stays quiet, stroking Davos’ forearm. Davos draws him in towards his chest, and to his relief, Stannis goes with it. Stannis isn’t a man who can just be held. He tenses up and seeks a means of escape. Davos knows him, and understands him so he keeps the embrace loose and runs his fingers through his lover’s hair. 

“It will get easier,” Davos says, to quieten his own concerns as much as Stannis’. Stannis grunts in response but he stays wrapped up in Davos’ arms. 

They lay together for a while as Stannis grits his teeth. With a quiet determination in his voice, he finally speaks. “It’s only been a month. We’re not giving up yet.” 

And with Stannis’ resolve, the subject is closed. They go up to bed, Davos popping his head into his sons’ rooms and telling them it is long past their bedtimes. 

He and Stannis share one brief kiss before lying down on their own sides of the bed. Stannis dislikes feeling smothered, but in the morning, Davos always wakes up with Stannis’ chest pressing against his back, or arms and legs thrown over his. 

Tonight, as with every night, Stannis lays on his side, his back to Davos. But Davos can tell from the tension in his shoulders and his steady but deep breathing that he is still awake. After a while, Davos reaches out a hand to him, finding his shoulder in the dark. 

“You can come closer,” Stannis mutters, and Davos does so without questioning it, spooning behind him. To his surprise, Stannis leans back against him. Davos finds himself holding his breath, trying his best not to break the spell. In six months, never once has Stannis allowed Davos to hold him like this in the dark. It shows just how bad his day must have been. Or perhaps it is simply that their fledgling relationship is steadily maturing, forced partly through circumstance, but also through their growing understanding of one another. 

Stannis finds his hand and they entwine their fingers together. It’s a new step, Davos thinks. It’s Stannis allowing him closer, acknowledging that what he does affects them both. It’s Stannis recognising that Davos is here to support him and isn’t out to get him. 

They’ve known one another for 10 years. 

When they met, Stannis was a single father and Davos on the brink of divorce. For three years, Davos worked for him, their paths crossing occasionally. With a promotion, he was soon delivering reports directly to Mr Stannis Baratheon himself. 

Nine years into their working relationship, they spent a night going over financial transactions relating to the docks. Davos had been suspicious of some of the dealings for some time. He had once worked the docks, and he had smuggled out goods and he knew how it all worked. He had spent a year in prison for his crimes. And that one night, while Stannis drank horrible coffee and Davos sipped fizzy drinks, they uncovered Robert’s illegal activities. 

They grew closer after that, as Stannis wrestled with his new-found knowledge and his family ties. Davos had always seen the stoic, stern man before. But as he peeled away Stannis’ shell, he found a surprising fragility underneath, a man always trying to do good and stumbling at every turn. He found a man who had never been allowed to make his own decisions. Who had never once considered he had a choice in what he did. 

Davos, against all his better judgement, fell in love with Stannis Baratheon. 

Stannis doesn’t know. Or perhaps he does, even though Davos has never said it aloud. They have only been together six months, though Davos loved him before that. 

Their relationship has changed a lot in the month since Davos and his sons moved in. Tonight they seem to be taking it a step further. For the first time, Davos begins to think that maybe they can make this work, but it requires a lot more give and take on both their parts. 

He must have fallen asleep, but he wakes up in the middle of the night and Stannis is missing and his side of the bed is cold. The bedroom door is partly ajar, and he hears voices down the hall. 

Davos collects his dressing down and walks to his youngest son’s room. The door is open and the light on, and he is about to step inside when he hears Stannis’ voice. 

“No one expects you to know everything,” Stannis says, though he isn’t as stern as the words suggest. “If you have a problem with your homework, you only need to ask. It’s better if you ask when you get home and not at three in the morning in future.”

“Yes, Sta-Mr Baratheon,” comes Steffon’s small voice, and he sounds as though he has been crying. 

“Stannis. You may call me Stannis, Steffon. You can finish those last two questions yourself. Then go to bed. Leave your homework outside your door and I’ll check it before I go to work in the morning.” 

“Thank you.”

There is a short pause, as though Stannis wasn’t expecting any thanks. “You can always ask for help,” he says, and his voice could almost be considered gentle. “There’s no shame in it.”

Davos tiptoes back to bed before Stannis can realise he is up. He listens as Stannis goes downstairs and he waits in bed for him. When Stannis returns, he is carrying a glass of water and he begins to get under the covers slowly so as not to wake up Davos.

“I’m awake,” Davos tells him before Stannis expends too much effort in being careful.

“Couldn’t sleep either?”

“I wondered where you were.”

Stannis lies down on his back. “Steffon was crying. He couldn’t do the fractions homework his teacher set.”

“Is he okay?”

“We finished most of it together. I’ll check it in the morning.”

Davos smiles to himself, pressing a kiss to Stannis’ shoulder. “I told you they don’t hate you.”

“I believe you said they don’t ‘always’ hate me.”

“Small steps.”

Stannis sighs, rolls onto his side and then onto his back again. He finds Davos’ hand and squeezes his fingers. Another gesture. Stannis rarely makes the first move, and Davos finds it reassuring as much as he finds it something to be concerned about. “I still don’t know what to do about Robert,” Stannis admits. “It’s all I can think about.”

“There’s nothing you can do tonight.” Davos lifts Stannis’ fingers and kisses them and then releases Stannis so he can get comfortable on his side. “Sleep for now.”

Their morning routine is always rushed and busy. Stannis leaves first, before anyone else has eaten breakfast. As always, Davos does not hear from him all day. He prepares a casserole for dinner, and he is just dishing up when Stannis gets home, far earlier than usual, at just gone six. 

He has dark circles under his eyes, but his expression softens when Shireen shows him some work she did at school. For the first time in a fortnight, Stannis eats dinner with them all. 

Afterwards, the boys put a film on, and Matthos reluctantly gives up the sofa so Davos can lie across it. Though he is surprised when Stannis settles in between his legs, his back to Davos’ chest, he doesn’t protest. He wraps an arm loosely around Stannis’ middle, and smiles when his lover chooses to read a book rather than watch the film. 

Eventually, the children creep off to bed, leaving them both listening to the credits. Stannis grinds his teeth and curls his fingers in Davos’ sleeve. He turns in Davos’ arms, and his steel blue eyes meet his. 

“Steffon,” Stannis says, and he frowns, and the bewilderment on his face makes him seem so much younger than he is. “He gave me a drawing when I got home.”

“As a thank you?”

“Yes.” Stannis still looks bemused. “And I’m handing in my letter of resignation on Monday. I’ll have six weeks to find a new job. Or start something new.”

“Start something?”

“Start a new company. Robert will get caught eventually, but it won’t be because of me. I owe him nothing, but I’ll extend him that courtesy, because he’s my brother and it’s what is expected of me. It’s going to be a difficult few months, but I have enough savings to keep us comfortable for a year. On your salary and my savings, we will all be just fine until I find something new. My mind’s made up, but I hope you approve of my decision.” Stannis frowns and looks away. “I find myself… I find myself needing your approval more and more.” His voice trails off, and there is a little hesitance in his expression. It’s as much as Stannis ever admits about how much he needs Davos in his life. 

Davos smiles and strokes Stannis’ cheekbone with his thumb. “It sounds like a really good plan. Of course I support that.”

Stannis looks at him again. “I haven’t been fair to you,” he says, and the apology is there, even though he doesn’t say sorry. “But it changes from now.” 

Davos feels as though the darkness which has been surrounding them is beginning to give way to a little sunlight. Stannis looks certain and determined. He looks as though he has made peace with his decision. Davos kisses his lips, first softly, then with a little more intent. 

There is a whisper of a smile on Stannis’ face, and Davos realises only then how long it has been since he saw Stannis even try to smile. 

They go to bed and lie together naked under the covers. They work out their plans, and discuss the future, and it’s clear they should have done this months ago. 

When he thinks Stannis is fast asleep, Davos tells him he loves him. He almost jumps when Stannis repeats those three words back to him. Davos laughs, and rolls his eyes, because of course Stannis wouldn’t give Davos a chance to test the words out first. 

In the morning, they lie in. Stannis is still worrying. But it feels like, with every passing hour, he is letting Davos in more and more.

Davos thinks they are going to be okay. With Stannis trying his best to be as soft to the children as he is with Davos, it’s as though there’s a new man in the house. He’s still stern, he still isn’t a man to cross. But he’s trying and that’s all anyone can ever ask of him. Davos knows he loves him more and more. 

He’s also absolutely certain they’re going to make it.


End file.
